I normally don’t regurgitate information of the internet, but this is a program that I use every day.

First I worked with SE|PY, but that project never made it to AS3…. sadly, I really loved that program and one of the reason was that it was build in python and so it was possible to run on OSX, Linux and Windows.
When I started to program AS3, I needed a tool to help me code nicely: FlashDevelop. It runs on .NET so it works only on Windows, but I love this program!

This release is long overdue but there were a few issues that we wanted to resolve and then there were summer vacations… 🙂
There are quite a lot of new features and really nice stability improvements, we hope that all of you enjoy this release!

For a project of mine: Custmm Grumm I needed to change a shape into an array, you could say that I needed to change a Illustrator/vector file into code.

As far as I know there is no other method then the one I created here with jsfl.

To make this happen I imported the .AI file (Illustrator) to the stage.

This JSFL files has some restrictions, you can read it in the comments:

this script only works under certain conditions:
– everything that is selected must be shapes, if not, this doesn’t work (select all and ctrl+b (break))
– every shape has to be in a different layer, otherwise the script see it as one shape

The result of this jsfl is not always what you expect…
sometimes geometric shapes like squares/rectangles/triangles are all f#$%ed-up (it looks like curves are made to opposite corners)
I have no solution for that in this jsfl (in the code), it seems that Flash ‘reads’ the shape wrong (or in the wrong order)…
But you could try:

I used the straighten tool which worked in one case, but not in the other

rotated a square 90 degrees

both solutions

I’m not making an install file, so if you want to try this script you need to copy it in the correct directory (I’m sorry for the OsX users: I have no idea, but if you do, place a comment)Windows (on my computer): C:\Documents and Settings\[here you name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS3\en\Configuration\Commands

here is the JSFL (if you need to give it a name; I have a suggestion: “[mck] shape2array 2.jsfl”)

Another AS2 example because: “The Color class has been deprecated in favor of the flash.geom.ColorTransform class.”
[as]
// AS2 Code (The Color class has been deprecated in favor of the flash.geom.ColorTransform class.)
import flash.geom.ColorTransform;

I have been using this for some time now: sometimes you need to export something generated in Flash to a (vector) file. Another name for this post could be: Flash2PDF, Flash to PDF, SWF2PDF, SWF to PDF, Export2PDF, Export to PDF….. you catch my drift 🙂
And the solution is very simple: just print a .PDF!

This will be my most ambitious project in my spare time: Custmm Grumm!

What is Custmm Grumm?

When I created Grumm, I had no plans with the moody fellow. But after I got invited to participate in a book about papertoys I started to think about the future of papertoys (and Grumm).

Two of those thoughts about the future is the base of this project: you should be able to modify/create a papermodel without expensive software or specialized knowledge.

Papertoys are, more then vinyl toys, difficult to customize. You need knowledge of image or vector programs link Photoshop or Illustrator. Besides the knowledge of these programs, you also need the program them selfs, which is not cheap. Another bump in customizing is the flat version of the model: the simple papertoys are not that difficult to understand, but the more complex models with more parts, it’s difficult to know which part goes where and how it will look.
It would be nice that you could create a custom skin and modify the model yourself.

Creating a custom skin for a model is done before: papercritters but modifying the model to isn’t.

I will try to make Custmm Grumm in Flash (AS3) so that it’s possible to create a custom skin and modify the model (with some restrictions of course)…

I had a discussion about this project on Nice Paper Toys if you want to know some more about the rocky start of this project.

In AS3 you first have to get the "number of children" (numChildren) in a DisplayObjectContainer, then you have to say which child you want (getChildAt(i))...
A good thing about AS3 is, you get everything in a movieClip, even shapes you made there without a instance name.

Last year I started working with AS3, and after having some startup problems, I’ve made my first application in it (not online yet).
The strange thing is, I started a new project and when I had to make a button from a movieclip, I immediately wrote it in AS2… 🙁

That AS2 is embedded deep into my brain and probably more people have this problem.
So I started this series of post about the stuff that’s changed in from AS2 to AS3.

I will probably regurgitate what other people already wrote something about, but it’s my “travel” trough AS3 land.